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Darrell M. West

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"A comprehensive, detailed, survey of e-government practices, this book is a significant contribution to the field."--Stuart Bretschneider, Syracuse University

"This well-written book nicely blends the diffusion theory of technical innovations with the comprehensive nature of the evolution of e-government."--M. Jae Moon, Korea University and Texas A&M University

"I've seen no other work that brings together this much empirical evidence on the general trend of government agencies' adoption of IT for their services."--Eszter Hargittai, Northwestern University.

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Digital Government

Princeton University Press

Chapter One

THIS BOOK LOOKS at the phenomenon of electronic government, that is, public sector use of the Internet and other digital devices to deliver services, information, and democracy itself. Although personal computers have been around for several decades, recent advances in networking, video imaging, and graphics interfacing have allowed governments to develop websites that contain a variety of online materials. As more and more people take advantage of these features, digital government is supplanting traditional means of access based on personal visits, phone calls, and mail delivery.

In Indiana, for example, citizens can register their vehicles and order subscriptions to government databases online. California allows people to personalize websites depending on whether they are tourists, students, state employees, businesses, or state residents. Arizona and Michigan have been innovators in online voting. At the national level, Americans can access private companies through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website that will file tax forms for them electronically.

Governments around the world have created websites that facilitate tourism, citizen complaints, and business investment. Tourists can book hotels through the government websites of many Caribbean and Pacific island countries. In Australia, citizens can register government complaints through agency websites. Nations such as Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic are attracting overseas investors through their websites.

But despite the prevalence of these online options, there are three unanswered questions that form the heart of this research. First, how much are the Internet and other digital delivery systems transforming the public sector? Second, what determines the speed and breadth of e-government adoption? Third, what are the consequences of digital technology for public sector performance, the political process, and democracy?

One of the problems in deciphering these topics has been a bifurcation of e-government research into detailed case studies on the one hand and highly abstract theoretical treatises on the other hand. There are a variety of case study publications that focus on particular agencies or jurisdictions. These are very useful, but hard to generalize to a larger universe of cases. At the other end of the spectrum are highly theoretical treatments of e-government that either glorify technology or study it at abstract levels. With either brand of theorizing, it is a challenge for practitioners and policymakers to figure out how to use this information to improve their performance.

My goal in this book is to bridge the worlds of theory and practice. E-government is a field in which practitioners and theorists need to address one another and share their respective insights. It is vitally important that we have clear conceptual frameworks for the analysis of e-government. It also is crucial that these frameworks rest on empirical analysis that actually shows what is happening and what problems need to be addressed.

Consistent with this objective, I look at the scope, causes, and consequences of digital government. Using multiple methods (case studies, content analysis, public and bureaucrat opinion survey data, an email responsiveness test, and aggregate multivariate analysis), I present a conceptual model in which factors such as organizational setting, budget resources, group conflict, and political leadership set the parameters on the speed and breadth of technological change. I also explore the consequences of e-government for service delivery, the needs of special populations such as the disabled and non-native speakers, bureaucrat attitudes and behavior, citizen trust in government, public sector responsiveness, and overall political dynamics. With the exception of impact on bureaucrats, most of these topics have attracted little scholarly attention.

After examining a variety of data sources, I argue that e-government falls more within models of limited than transformational change. There are a variety of forces that restrict the ability of policymakers to make effective use of new technology. Although digital breakthroughs offer the potential of revolutionary change, social, political, and economic factors constrain the scope of transformation and prevent government officials from realizing the full benefits of the Internet.

THE SCOPE OF E-GOVERNMENT: HOW MUCH CHANGE?

The origin of the Internet dates back to 1969 when a United States Defense Department project spawned ARPANET, a digital system connecting computers in different geographical locations. These connections allowed scientists at fifteen different universities and American defense officials to exchange information and post notes at common computer spaces that could be viewed simultaneously by interested parties.

Unlike telephones, which required communicating parties to be on the line at the same time for the transmission of material, ARPANET allowed people to send information even if the other person was not at the other end to receive the transmission. Scientists could transmit emails or access bulletin boards, and thereby see ideas on which others were working without physically being in the same location. This type of asynchronous communication proved very popular with scientists and members of the defense establishment.

It was not until 1991, though, with the formation of interfaces with the World Wide Web that the Internet was created as a means of communication among the general public. The Web integrated text, images, and sound, and therefore facilitated the instantaneous communication of several modes of information. Unlike past electronic systems that required extensive technical knowledge or involved specialized programming, it was simple to use.

Within a few years, government agencies discovered that the Internet was a useful way to communicate with citizens, businesses, and other agencies. Information and services could be put online and made available to a wide variety of people. Right now, the Internet remains the most popular e-government delivery system. Eighty-one percent of federal e-government initiatives are delivered that way, with the remainder coming in the forms of kiosks, telephones, email, bulletin boards, and wireless networks.

Citizens enjoy the convenience of digital communications as a means to contact government officials with problems they are having. A July 2003 Pew Internet Survey found that of those Americans who had contacted the government in the past year, 26 percent called on the phone, 18 percent visited the government website, 12 percent went to the agency in person, 10 percent sent a letter, and 10 percent relied upon email.

By the turn of the twenty-first century, some governmental units were employing the Internet for direct democracy. When faced with a controversy over the repainting of a prominent Baltimore expressway bridge (a local artist wanted rust red-brown while the mayor preferred Kelly green), Mayor Martin O'Malley turned to an online plebiscite at the City Hall website. Voters were asked to choose which color the Howard Street Bridge should be painted. Over five thousand people cast ballots, and the mayor's choice lost on a 52 to 48 percent vote. In his concession speech, O'Malley said "I submit to the will of the...